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PiGS Server Static IPs

About Static IP’s

Normally on your home network, your Router automatically hands out IP addresses to your various devices like your phone, desktop computers, laptops, Roku boxes, printers, etc. As the devices come and go (get powered on/off, your phone leaves the house, then returns), the IP each device receives might be different. This automatic IP process is called DHCP, where the ‘D’ stands for Dynanic (or changing).

The computer or device that is running PiGS needs to have an IP address that does not change so that your DVR(s) can find PiGS at a known (unchanging) address. Imagine if you told a friend who is visiting from out of town, your home address is 134 IP Street, but when when they turned on to your street your address had changed to 251 IP Street and 134 IP Street was assigned to another house? They’d end up at the wrong house!

There are a number of methods to keep the IP addresses from some or all of your devices on your Network from changing, but it does involve understanding a little about how your Router is configured so that each IP is only used for one device (e.g. what if 2 houses on IP Street both had the same house number?, again your friend would be quite confused!). Here are some of the methods:

  • #1Let the Router provide the IP’s , then reserve it (Fixed IP)
  • #2 You decide the IP’s and ensure the Router doesn’t use it (static)
  • #3 Do some Router Domain name magic and use hostnames
  • #4 Skip the whole fixed IP thing and hope it works!

So first method #1. If you router supports IP address reservations, this may be the easiest method because you don’t have to figure out what addresses you are allowed to use as static IP’s. You can check your router settings in the LAN or DHCP area for a way to reserve addresses, or google ‘your-router-model-number reserve IP address’. The video below shows how I reserved my PC and DVR IP address by just clicking a box.